The novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for COVID-19 infection. The COVID-19 pandemic represents one of the worst global threats in the 21st century since World War II. This pandemic has led to a worldwide economic recession and crisis due to lockdown. Biomedical researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and premier institutes throughout the world are claiming that new clinical trials are in progress. During the severe phase of this disease, mechanical ventilators are used to assist in the management of outcomes; however, their use can lead to the development of pneumonia. In this context, mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-derived exosomes can serve as an immunomodulation treatment for COVID-19 patients. Exosomes possess anti-inflammatory, pro-angiogenic, and immunomodulatory properties that can be explored in an effort to improve the outcomes of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients. Currently, only one ongoing clinical trial (NCT04276987) is specifically exploring the use of MSC-derived exosomes as a therapy to treat SARS-CoV-2-associated pneumonia. The purpose of this review is to provide insights of using exosomes derived from mesenchymal stem cells in management of the co-morbidities associated with SARS-CoV-2-infected persons in direction of improving their health outcome. There is limited knowledge of using exosomes in SARS-CoV-2; the clinicians and researchers should exploit exosomes as therapeutic regime.

Role of the circulatory interleukin-6 in the pathogenesis of gliomas: A systematic review

Vitamin D plays an important role in glucose tolerance by stimulating insulin secretion and evidences suggest a contradictory result on the association between vitamin D status and risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). The present updated meta-analysis has been undertaken to find out the joined effect of vitamin D status on the risk of effect GDM considering previously published articles. Data were collected through literature search using electronic databases to retrieve relevant published research articles using various combinations of the following keywords, “vitamin D,” “vitamin D deficiency,” “cholecalciferol,” “25-hydroxyvitamin D,” “25(OH) D,” “gestational diabetes mellitus,” and “GDM.” A total of 36 studies including 7,596 GDM cases and 23,377 non-GDM controls were involved in this study. Overall, pooled meta-analysis showed that pregnant women diagnosed with GDM have 18% higher risk of GDM risk when compared with controls [odds ratio (OR) = 1.18, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.10–1.25; P = 0.00] with high heterogeneity (I ² = 73.29). The mean difference was also significantly different between cases and controls (OR = −0.18, 95% CI − 0.22 to − 0.14; P = 0.00). Subgroup analysis showed significant results with age more than 30 years, Asian and European regions, and case–control, cross-sectional, and nested case–control study design. Low concentration of vitamin D is associated with the development of GDM. Although in future more studies especially systematically designed clinical trials based on vitamin D supplementation with large sample size on different population are needed to elucidate the exact concentration of vitamin D during pregnancy as well as before and after pregnancy.

Introduction: Prostate carcinoma is still a dreaded disease wanting more effective treatment and definitive early detection for a better prognosis and cure of life. The present study was planned to investigate the correlation of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) expression level and microvessel density (MVD) between the BPH and prostate cancer subjects to analyze their diagnostic and prognostic value. Subjects and methods Freshly diagnosed histopathologically confirmed 50 cases of prostate cancer and 50 cases of BPH were included. Expression level of VEGF was measured using Immunohistochemistry (IHC), while MVD was determined via CD34 endothelium-specific antibodies. In the case group, we have also recorded the Gleason's score of prostate cancer and investigated its correlation with angiogenic factor VEGF and MVD CD34. Results: The study showed a statistically significant difference value of VEGF expression level between the prostate cancer and BPH group (p < 0.001). The mean MVD CD34 in the prostate cancer and BPH groups were 29.66 ± 0.21 and 9.96 ± 0.25, respectively. The difference of MVD CD34 expression between the groups was also found significant (p < 0.001). VEGF scoring was significantly correlated with Gleason's scores of prostate cancer (p = 0.005). Conclusions: The present findings may support the assumption that VEGF and CD34 expression level might have an important role in the prediction of prostate cancer as it was significantly differed with BPH. In addition, VEGF expression level showed intense staining in the tissue samples with higher grading of prostate cancer which reveals its importance as prognostic marker.

Methionine synthase reductase (MTRR) gene involved in the signaling for production of enzyme called methionine synthase reductase that use for the synthesis of methionine, which further used in DNA replication and repair. Genetic variation in MTRR gene may alter the susceptibility of developing urinary bladder cancer. The present study undertaken to identify the contribution of genetic polymorphisms in the MTRR gene on the selected polymorphic sites including c.66A>G and c.524C>T towards urinary bladder cancer risk. Direct-DNA sequencing method was applied for the observation of genotyping distribution of MTRR c.66A>G and c.524C>T polymorphisms in 232 histopathological confirmed cases of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of urinary bladder cancer and 250 age-, sex- and ethnicity-matched cancer free controls. With significant difference (p = 0.05) of genotype analysis further corresponding Odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was applied for adjusting significant confounder variables. Haploview software (version 4.2) was used to perform pairwise Linkage Disequilibrium (LD) analysis. Age (p = 0.01), Habit of smoking (p = 0.05), tobacco consumption (p = 0.001) and diet (p = 0.02) were significantly differed between cases and controls. Both the MTRR substitution showed higher risk of developing urinary bladder cancer (p = G and c.524C>T substitutions. In conclusion, MTRR c.66A>G and c.524C>T substitutions showed a joint effect with the other associated risk factors. Further studies with a greater number of subjects of different ethnicity and polymorphisms are recommended for the better understanding urinary bladder cancer etiology and to screen the population who are at higher risk of developing urinary bladder cancer.